A common sight on old photos of Medway and Maidstone that show pubs are the words "Style & Winch Ltd - Maidstone Fine Ales". The brewery was formed by the merger of Style brewery and Winch brewery but they then acquired many other brewers and shut their brewing operations to centralise at their Maidstone brewery. Style & Winch finally closed in 1965 but the name lives on as the name of a pub in Union Street, Maidstone and is also still displayed prominently on the fascia of the Man of Kent pub in Rochester.

Bredhurst Bell customers in early 1900s. The pub sold Style and Winch Maidstone fine ales

Mulberry Tree pub, lower Rainham Road c1900

The Green Lion Rainham

Temperance Hotel Station Road Rainham (Railway Pub)

The Rainham Coop Store stood opposite St Margaret's Church next to the White Horse pub and sold items such as clothing, shoes and homeware. It was demolished in 1997 and the site left vacant for some time before the NHS Rainham Healthy Living Centre was built. The store had an upstairs/upper floor called Rainham Co-operative Hall that was used by various groups for meetings and social events like dances.

Sandra Perkins has been in touch and said "My Mothers parents and my Grandparents, Royston & Ethel Black were Old Time Dance teachers at the Co-op. Upstairs in the hall was one of many places they taught, they lived in Rainham most of their married lives until their deaths"

These photos of the demolition in November 1997 were kindly provided by Peter Manning

The scene in 2001 following the demolition looking towards the church & White Horse pub.

St Margarets Church Hall was built on Orchard Street Rainham and opened in 1937. By the late 1990s the hall had become outdated and it was decided that a replacement could be built nearer the church on land that was freed up by the cancellation of the Rainham Bypass project

Construction of the new Millennium centre began in the late 1990s for opening in the millennium celebrations and the old church hall in Orchard Street was demolished to make way for new flats in 2001. 

These photos were taken by Virginia Smith, proprietor and manager of the Peter Pan preschool. 

Former Church Hall site, now flats on Hurst Close/Orchard Street